In a material (e.g., metal) removal operation (e.g., machining, milling, turning, drilling), a machine tool typically removes material from a workpiece in rather small pieces such as chips. As would be expected, the nature of material removal from a workpiece by a machine tool creates heat. As a consequence, a machine tool typically incorporates a cooling system in which a liquid coolant is directed at the workpiece and appropriate parts of the machine tool. It is also typical that the coolant along with the chips (i.e., solid contaminants)are removed from the vicinity of the machine tool.
Because of the cost of the coolant, there are arrangements to filter the chips from used coolant and then recycle the coolant back for reuse with the machine tool. In one such arrangement a conveyor, which receives the used coolant and chips from the machine tool, travels through a coolant reservoir. Although the intention is for the chips to remain on the conveyor and the coolant to drain away from the conveyor and into the reservoir, the fact of the matter is that not all of the coolant drains into the reservoir. The result is that the conveyor transports the chips, along with some of the coolant, and deposits the chips and the coolant into a chip hopper or the like. Thus, for example, the chip hopper may contain two to three pounds of chips along with ten to twenty gallons of coolant. For some machine tool operations, the conveyor remains in operation during times that the machine tool is not in operation. For this type of situation, the chip hopper may essentially contain only coolant.
It is typical that when the chip hopper is emptied the chips are separated from the coolant. The chips are stored in a central location until they are picked up for removal from the site. The coolant is also stored in a holding tank at a separate location until it is picked up for removal.
It thus becomes apparent that while this earlier arrangement removes chips from the coolant, it also removes a significant volume of coolant along with the chips. There are several drawbacks associated with this earlier arrangement due to the removal of a significant volume of coolant.
Because the coolant is expensive, the permanent loss of a significant volume of coolant results in a meaningful out-of-pocket expense. It would be desirable to provide an arrangement that does not result in the loss of a significant volume of coolant, and hence, leads to a decrease in the out-of-pocket expense due to the cost of the coolant.
The loss of a significant volume of coolant also results in an increased cost of labor associated with the requirement to fill the coolant reservoir more often. It also results in an increase in labor costs due to the need to empty the chip hopper more often because of the volume of coolant therein. There is an additional increase in labor expense because of the need to transport, and eventually remove from the site, the additional volume of coolant. In other words, the loss of a significant volume of coolant makes the machine tool operation much more labor-intensive, and as a result, increases the labor expense.
Hence, it would be highly desirable to provide an improved coolant reclamation arrangement wherein all (or substantially all) of the coolant carried from the coolant reservoir along with the chips by the conveyor is recovered for recycling back to the coolant reservoir. By providing such an arrangement, there would be a decrease in the out-of-pocket expense associated with the cost of the coolant. Such an arrangement would also result in a decrease in the cost of labor associated with filling the coolant reservoir, as well as the handling and transport of the coolant removed from the coolant reservoir.